Our Experts

Joanna Bennett | Solicitor

I qualified as a solicitor in 2015 and moved to Hodge Jones & Allen to join the Civil Liberties department in 2016. My work focuses on claims against the police and other public authorities, including civil actions for assault, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, discrimination and breach of the Human Rights Act, as well as complaints and public law challenges.

I am a Law Society accredited mental health panel member and prior to joining the firm I also regularly represented patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 (as amended) at First-tier Tribunals.

I have a particular interest in claims arising from stop and searches, the mistreatment of vulnerable individuals and civil actions resulting from police misconduct at public demonstrations.

I am bilingual; in German and English.

Clients Comments

“Joanna Bennett is a fantastic solicitor & has gone above & beyond to help me in my civil case. I would highly recommend using HJA solicitors, especially if you ever find yourself in need of the best civil liberties team around. Ms Stewart”

“I found all of the staff I encountered to be friendly, helpful and professional. I felt very well looked after on a personal level throughout the cases progress. I felt I could trust the team to be fighting for my case to get the best outcome and that their ethics were good, both professional, and with values in line with my own.”

“I would like to thank you and Joanna for all your hard work and determination in fighting my case, without you guys I would not of even been awarded the figure I was, so again I would just like to express my gratitude to you.”

“Just wanted to thank you again for the hard work you did for our case and for always being so kind to me when I’m upset.”

Posts by Joanna Bennett

Ever since I decided to pursue a career in law I knew that I wanted to do so in order to help individuals to hold public bodies accountable for their actions. So when I qualified in 2015, I focused on civil liberties and mental health law and last year joined the civil liberties team at Hodge Jones & Allen.

On 13 February 2017, the Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF) published findings of its survey it had announced in January 2017. The survey was sent out to all of its 32,000 members of the federation, yet less than half, 11,000, responded.

Being strip searched by police officers can be a humiliating and degrading experience for those subjected to it, yet many police forces do not have policies on when the practice can be used and many senior police officers are unclear about when it can be justified.